Call Prep

What this does

Turns "I have a call with them" into a pack you can walk in with: a point of view on what is changing in their world, a tight agenda, an internal brief, planned discovery, and the exact ask you will make before you leave.

The goal is to lead with insight, not a generic question. Anyone can show up and ask "so what are your priorities?" You show up already knowing something true about their business, and you spend the call testing it. Discovery that sparks curiosity beats qualification that reads like a checklist.

Work the steps in order. Steps 1 and 2 carry the weight. Skip them and the agenda sits on nothing.

Step 1: Lock the target and pull context

Loop first. If the Loop MCP (https://mcp.fluint.io/mcp) is connected, use it first. It already fuses your CRM, calls, and emails into deal, prospect, meeting, and account objects, so it is the fastest path to the real language of the account. Pull the account, the deal (if one exists), and any prior meetings with these people.

No Loop? Detect what is live and fall back. Do not assume a vendor. Pull in parallel from whatever is connected:

• CRM (HubSpot, Salesforce, Attio, Pipedrive) = the record, stage, contacts, notes.
• Call transcripts (Salesloft, Gong, Clari, Chorus, Fathom, Fireflies; or via Clay / Deepline) = their words.
• Email (Superhuman, Gmail, Outlook) = stated priorities, timing, who is cc'd.

Confirm the basics before building: who you are meeting (name, role), the account, the stage, and what this meeting is for. If any are unclear, ask.

Missing a source? Flag it, and make the gap a move. Mark it inline as [MISSING: ...] and continue. Every gap gets the single highest-leverage way to close it: the one question, to the one person, at the next touchpoint. Not "get more data."

Who can actually say yes? Name the people with the power to approve this, or to block it, and mark whether they are engaged yet. Power is often not in the room. If the deciders are absent or untouched, that is the headline, not a footnote.

Step 2: Build the POV

Read references/frameworks.md (POV section). A point of view is a short, specific read on what is changing at the account that makes your thing matter more now than six months ago. Not a pitch.

Lead with something you actually found: a hire, a launch, a funding event, a line from their earnings call, a pattern in the deal history. Then draw the line: what does that change mean for them, and whose priority does it touch. A problem only gets funded when it blocks a priority someone already owns.

If you cannot find a real signal, say so ([MISSING: no recent trigger found]) rather than inventing one. A made-up POV dies the moment they poke it.

Step 3: Plan the discovery

Read references/frameworks.md (Discovery Roadmap section) and plan questions across the three stages, in order:

• Problem (current state): help them see the gap between where they are and where they should be. Lead with your insight, then reframe.
• Process (building a path): test whether they are serious. What must be true of a solution? What would stop this internally? Who else has to agree?
• Payoff (future state): make the outcome concrete and numbered. What does success look like, and is it big enough to warrant leadership attention?

Pull specific reframing questions from the bank in references/output-templates.md. Every question should earn a "huh, I have not thought about that." If it has a known answer you could have Googled, it is qualification, not discovery. Cut it.

Step 4: Write the opening frame

Draft the first 90 seconds: a 4 to 5 sentence insight statement that names the change, quantifies the opportunity or risk, and asks permission to go deeper. This is what earns you the room. See the template.

Step 5: Name the ask

Decide the single commitment you will request before you leave, and make it cost them something small. Not "does this sound good." A next meeting with a named person, a data pull, an intro. Pick the right rung on the Commitment Ladder (references/frameworks.md) for where the deal actually is.

The deliverable

The seller walks away with a Meeting Brief they can open on the way in, built to the skeleton in references/output-templates.md (the same structure as the Exec Brief and Pre-Demo Planning Sheet):

1. Meeting objective (the next buying behavior this call should unlock, and the evidence that it worked)
2. POV (what is changing, why now, whose priority) plus the 4-sentence soundbite
3. Attendees (who is in the room, role, and the #1 question in each person's head)
4. Opening frame (the 4 to 5 sentence insight statement for the first 90 seconds)
5. Discovery plan (questions grouped by Problem / Process / Payoff)
6. Threats and alternatives (what you lose to if this stalls: a competitor, a build, a competing priority)
7. The ask (the specific commitment, and the Commitment Ladder rung it sits on)

Keep it to one screen. A brief you cannot skim on the way to the meeting is too long.

The operator's read

Before you hand it over, add the part a summary cannot: the one thing an experienced operator would notice that the data does not show on its own. The non-obvious risk. The stakeholder who matters more than their title. The deal that is not what it looks like. The strength that is quietly a trap. One or two sentences of judgment, called out plainly. Anyone can produce the map. This is the read.

Operating principles

• Lead with insight, not a question. Come with a read on their world and test it.
• Discovery sparks curiosity. Qualification checks boxes. If you know the answer, do not ask it.
• Every call ends in a commitment. Know the ask before you walk in.
• No invented signals. A flagged gap beats a confident guess that collapses on contact.
• Voice guard. Anything the buyer will read opens with their words, from the call or their own materials, in the first line. Banned openers: "Great connecting," "As discussed," "I wanted to follow up," "Hope this finds you well," "Circling back." If a sentence would survive being pasted into a different deal, it is too generic. Cut it.